How to find your lip shade
There’s nothing worse than shopping for your new holy grail lippy, only to find when you return home that your newly purchased lip stick is sadly not the shade for you.
Still unsure of where it all went oh-so-wrong, you persevere on your lipstick pursuit hoping that eventually, by some sheer luck you’ll strike gold and finally find your shade.
But alas, the lipstick hunt overcomes you, and you end up going back to the one, tried and true lipstick you discovered back when you were 20. But there’s no fun in that – after all, you should be able to confidently build a collection of lip colours that can reflect your every mood, or suit that makeup look you saw on Pinterest.
Never fear, knowing how to find the perfect lip colour doesn’t have to be a disappointing feat, nor a game of chance. While knowing how to find the perfect lip shade may not technically be considered an “art form”, there is in fact some art theory involved based on identifying your undertone.
Let us guide you through how to find your most complimentary lipstick shade with our trusty old friend, the colour wheel! But first, what exactly is an undertone anyway?
What is your skin undertone?
While you may be on the fair or darker side, your skin undertone isn’t the same as your actual skin tone.
Your undertone is the natural hue that peeks through the surface of your skin, giving pigment to your beautiful skin tone. For many, we assume that just because we’re fair skinned we must therefore have a cool undertone... right? We're here to debunk this and teach you that it is possible to be fair skinned and not necessarily have a cool undertone like you may suspect.
There are 3 undertones which can be identified by assessing the colour of your veins and in conjunction with our colour wheel. These are:
- Cool undertone = blue or purple veins
- Warm undertone = green or olive veins
- Neutral undertone = blue or green veins
When assessing your undertone, it’s also helpful to think about whether you typically wear gold or silver jewellery. For those who love a splash of silver, this typically flatters cooler undertones, whereas gold is known to be complimentary to warmer undertones. For the lucky ones that can wear both, guess what? You’re most likely a neutral undertone!
Still not convinced you’ve found your undertone based on your vein colour? Don’t you worry, we wouldn’t leave it at just that. Simply take the underside of your forearm and compare the closest match to your skin tone on the colour wheel below. This will assist you with more accurately identifying your undertone.
While this method isn’t foolproof, you’ll have a much better understanding to help you shop your most flattering shade to complete your makeup looks.
How to find your lip shade
Now that you’ve completed your colour wheel analysis, let’s de-code this to help you shop your most flattering lip shade hues.
- Cool undertone (blue/purple veins) = Blue or purple lipstick hues
- Warm (green/olive veins) = Red or orange lipstick hues
- Neutral (blue/green veins) = Any lipstick hue
Shop your most flattering lip shades
After all this analysis, you’re now ready to shop your perfect lipstick!
Find our carefully curated collections of lipstick shades perfectly suited to each undertone below:
While it’s helpful to know your undertone to provide you with confidence when shopping for a new lipstick, at the end of the day you should always choose the lip stick that will have you feeling your most comfortable, confident self!
After all, there's no point in buying a lipstick you won’t get wear out of!
